-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Mon, Jul 23, 2007 at 10:53:40PM -0400, Lee Revell wrote: > On 7/23/07, Chris McCormick <chris@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >Hi All, > > > >I'm about to purchase this ASUS laptop: > ><http://www.alvio.com/config.aspx?t=&product_ID=11110> > > > >I was just wondering if anyone had experience with the sound device > >(Realtek ALC882D) or this laptop specifically? I will be 'touring' with > >it next year. I chose this ASUS over a macbook based on the testimonies > >on this list earlier in the year; thanks for yr help! > > Don't count on the onboard sound being usable for live performance - > many (most) laptops' onboard sound is way too noisy and HDA intel > systems have lots of driver problems due to the flexibility of the > architecture combined with lack of docs for driver writers. > > If at all possible, test one in a store with a Linux live CD > containing a recent ALSA such as the latest Knoppix release. Even > better, test with a 64studio live CD and try to run JACK for a while > to see if you get xruns. Next best would be a first hand account from > someone with the EXACT same laptop. If neither of those are possible, > make sure you can easily return it if the sound is too bad for your > needs. > > Even though Intel Macs also use HDA audio, their quality control is > better as their target market is media production vs. web surfing and > gaming. > USB audio interfaces seem to be pretty cheap and reliable. I'm using a FastTrack Pro now, and previously used a USB Audiophile, both of which obtained for less than US$100 each, and they sound great. I have an ASUS laptop; the hda-intel chip on-board is caca. It's also hardwired to the same interrupt as the video driver-- useless for low-latency audio. You could use firewire, but note that that some ASUS laptops (like mine) also have the dreaded Ricoh FireWire chipset, which, alas, does not have the "works" bit enabled. It's also hardwired to the same interrupt as the video and the hda-intel, doh. Firewire ExpressCards and PC Cards are cheap though, I got one with a TI chipset for US$60, and the ExpressCard slot shares an interrupt only with eth0. For live use, I have been using a self-powered FastTrack USB audio interface with: jackd -R -P70 -dalsa -r44100 -p128 -n3 -Phw:0,0 -Chw:0,1 The FastTrack is stuck at 44100 on Linux, for some reason, which is annoying but acceptable to me in a live situation. The Audiophile USB runs at 44100 or 48000 and beyond. - -ken -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.6 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFGpb6me8HF+6xeOIcRAvz4AJ9PpzL/y2lewWeLZ9TdaKGZVsfhmACeLsek EXw3AJl/zXVLo0YsjeRhefw= =T1Gq -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list Linux-audio-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx http://lists.linuxaudio.org/mailman/listinfo.cgi/linux-audio-user
